1. Field
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a light emitting diode (LED) package and a method of fabricating the same, and more particularly, to a wafer level LED package and a method of fabricating the same.
2. Discussion of the Background
LEDs may be fabricated to be lightweight and slim, and may save energy and have a long lifespan. Accordingly, such LEDs have been widely used as backlight units for a variety of display devices, including mobile phones. LED packages with LEDs mounted thereon, may realize white light having a high color rendering index. Hence, LEDs have replaced white light sources, such as fluorescent lamps, and have been applied to general illumination.
Generally, a conventional LED package is fabricated by mounting individual LED chips on a package having lead electrodes, connecting the LED chips to the lead electrodes using bonding wires, and encapsulating the LED chips using an encapsulant.
In such a conventional method of fabricating an LED package, the LED chips are handled individually. Thus, a lot of time and expense are required for the mass production of LED packages, leading to lower productivity. Furthermore, since the bonding wires are formed again after the LED chips are mounted, the process of fabricating the LED package is complicated. In addition, since the wire bonding process using capillaries requires a space for movement of the capillaries, it acts as a limitation to reducing a package size. Moreover, package failure may be frequently caused by a bonding failure or disconnection of wires.
As a size of a growth substrate for growing an epitaxial layer has recently been increased from 2 inches to 4 inches, even up to 6 inches, thousands to ten thousands of LED chips have been fabricated on a single growth substrate. Therefore, there are increasing demands for fabricating LED packages in large quantities and rapidly by using those LED chips. However, the prior art has difficulty in meeting the above-described demands.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form any part of the prior art nor what the prior art may suggest to a person of ordinary skill in the art.